Artificial intelligence is on the horizon in many industries, but it’s an active part of quite a few already. Life insurance is one of them, and executives in the industry are betting that the technology will continue to revolutionize the ways they do business. According to Accenture's Technology Vision for insurance 2017 report, 75% of insurance executives believe AI has the capacity to significantly affect the insurance industry in as little as three years.
Many insurance companies already utilize AI for risk analysis, allowing them to determine more accurate premiums based on the data. What’s especially exciting for those of us working in the industry, though, is how machines are learning to spot inconsistencies in applications, claims and premium assessments that have historically plagued insurers. With thousands of insured clients, companies experience a backlog in claims processing due to human error, but AI can streamline the process and improve both accuracy and customer satisfaction rates.
Some life insurance companies also use AI to review claims and look for nuances that could indicate fraud — details that might get past claims review specialists who dismiss the data as reasonable or plausible. As a result, the insurance industry is beginning to see a reduction in the number of paid fraudulent claims, which means companies are able to assess a more realistic premium for each applicant.
Capitalizing On AI's Potential - AI is going to change life insurance — in truth, it already has. Leaders who see these big changes coming are going to be in the best position to apply them productively to their own businesses, and they’ll be able to make improvements many thought impossible just a few years ago. As AI continues to revolutionize the industry, here are three areas for which I believe the tech holds the most potential:
Reviewing Claims - Insurance companies once had to rely on the trustworthiness of statements and claims in order to do business. With AI, that's no longer the case. Using AI to review and decide the fate of a claim eliminates emotional subjectivity from the equation. When agents aren't trying to decipher whether a customer is telling the truth or not, it allows them to foster more positive interactions with those who aren't trying to game the system.
AI will magnify insurance companies' ability to trust people by spotting intrinsic nuances that are often flagged for fraud but sometimes get past human reviewers. The algorithms are programmed to find even the slightest inconsistencies, and machine learning will enable AI to improve over time. In instances where an algorithm is fooled, the system can note the failure and learn to watch for similar situations in the future.
Avoiding Human Error - Human error is an unavoidable part of doing business in many industries. In insurance, I’ve witnessed AI’s potential to affect the industry firsthand. As AI reduces the number of fraudulent claims and streamlines the claims process, companies can shift focus to customer satisfaction and industry growth — and human resources can dedicate time to being human.
If insurance companies can use programs to scan for fraud and make filing claims easier, it stands to reason that other businesses could use them to automate some of their own processes, such as scanning applicant pools to find great employees. Hiring the wrong person is incredibly costly, as businesses lose their investment in that individual’s training. Time is a resource that no company can afford to lose, whatever the industry.
Increasing Efficiency - It can take employees months to comb through thousands of documents related to life insurance claims. Fortunately, that's no longer necessary. An AI program can sort through the same stack of claims in mere seconds, while also eliminating subjectivity and identifying data points that human eyes would almost certainly miss.
Utilizing AI eliminates the need for employees to perform tedious data analysis and instead allows them to do something more innovative and proactive for the business. Essentially, insurance companies will now have robots to do the robotic work, so humans don't have to chase data pointing to past events or historical performance.
In many industries, the impending "AI takeover" is viewed with more than a little trepidation. In life insurance, however, businesses are eagerly awaiting the improvements that it will bring. AI will improve the speed of claims processing, freeing employees to interact with people instead of paper. It will also actively prevent fraud, so customers will pay premiums that align more closely with their life stages. As the use of AI spreads, leaders in the life insurance industry should work to implement programs that will truly streamline their businesses and push them to succeed in the increasingly automated future.
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